Jurors hard to find for Warren Jeffs trial
 
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun
 
ST. GEORGE, Utah - There is a very real possibility that the trial of Warren Jeffs - North America's most notorious polygamist - may be have to be moved from this southern Utah city because an impartial jury can not be found.

Jeffs was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list alongside Osama bin Laden when he was arrested last August. He is the so-called prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose 15,000 followers (including about 600 in Bountiful, B.C.) believe that he is God's mouthpiece on earth and may well be a god himself.

Jeffs is charged in Utah with two counts of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl, who he assigned to marry her 19-year-old first cousin. The maximum penalty for the conspiracy charge is life in prison.

Jeffs has also been charged in Arizona with six sex-related counts and he faces two federal counts of unlawful flight from prosecution.

Polygamy is not an issue at the trial. But between being on the Most Wanted List and being a polygamist, it's hard to find anybody who doesn't have an opinion about Jeffs and his innocence.

After two days, only nine people have been deemed eligible to move to the next stage in the selection process, when attorneys for the prosecution or the defence can exclude up to four people each without any reason.

Of the original pool of 300, only 230 showed up for the first round on Friday to fill out an 11-page, 76-question survey. From those 230, 74 were in court on Monday. Thirty-five were excluded on the basis of their answers to the questionnaire. Sixteen people were interviewed and seven more were excluded.

That leaves 13 remaining to be interviewed from Monday in addition to the remaining 156.

Judge James Shumate has said that he wants a minimum of 28 people in the final pool when the attorneys from both sides try to find eight jurors and four alternates.

But if only nine possibilities emerged from the first 144, the chances of getting 19 people out of the remaining 169 are not good.

The two-week trial had been set to begin on Wednesday. But at the rate the interviews of the interviews of prospective jurors by the judge, prosecution and defence attorneys will not be finished by Wednesday.

Dressed in a dark suit with white shirt and white and grey patterned tie, Jeffs sat in on Monday's interviews in the cramped judge's chambers along with three sheriffs, his three lawyers, three prosecutors, the judge, a court reporter, one journalist (on a rotational basis) and two other assistants.

Although he is thin and pale, Jeffs appeared to be following what was going on. However, he didn't smile or laugh when the attorneys attempted to put the potential jurors at ease with a light remark.

In March, Jeffs was so disoriented and disengaged at a court hearing that Shumate ordered a competency hearing. Two psychologists found him fit to stand trial.

dbramham@png.canwest.com
 
canada.com
Originally published Monday, September 10, 2007
 
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